We’re back with another three-act analysis, this time of the French classic, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This book has been a long-time favorite of mine, and like Animal Farm it has a great deal of allegory and symbolism woven into it, though it is decidedly less pessimistic and has a tone that… Read more »
Backstory is an essential part of writing. It puts elements of the main narrative into context, helping us understand characters’ motivations and the history of the world or setting. It gives us a better sense for character relationships and also helps us understand why certain objects, events, or institutions are important. There are primarily eight… Read more »
Today we’re doing a three-act analysis on one of the most beloved Christmas stories: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. While Dickens wrote many books examining the divide between rich and poor, I find A Christmas Carol the most compelling. Even with its compressed scope as a novella, it gives us a depth of character… Read more »
One of my favorite short stories is Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, which is probably one of the most tightly plotted narratives of all time. Barely two pages long, this story incorporates all three acts, plus the pivot points, midpoint, climax, and denouement. It doesn’t miss a single beat and it does all… Read more »
On the eve of Justin Torres’s new release, Blackouts (coming October 10, 2023, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux), I’m reminded of his first novel, We the Animals, and what a powerful advocate it is for queer storytelling and for the creative memoir and (auto)biographical novel genres. Justin Torres’ We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2011)… Read more »
Welcome back to The Messy Middle, where we focus on crafting complex characters and building dynamic worlds that connect with readers from marginalized communities. In a previous post, The Messy Middle: Luna & The Rise of Trans Narratives, we examined the pitfalls of the young adult (YA) novel Luna, which provided a compelling “case study”… Read more »
Though it may come as a surprise to some, I’ve only been reading romance novels for a few years now. I’ve always secretly enjoyed romance plots when they come up in other books I’ve read or movies I watched, and I’m the first to worship two characters at the barest hint of chemistry, but it… Read more »
If you’re a writer (and if you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you are!), you probably spend a happy amount of time reading. But when you read, do you read like a writer? Writers who learn how to read like writers inevitably improve their craft in immeasurable ways. The longer you read like a… Read more »
Not long ago, I finished my fourth read of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. It is one of those rare texts that doesn’t just invite itself for a revisit, but is almost a necessary lifelong companion. Speaking as it does on homosexuality in America, and on the AIDS crisis (and the political mess that surrounded/continues… Read more »
Happy holidays and solstice celebrations to all! As the year comes to an end, I hope that you take the time to look over those moments which made 2022 special for you in terms of literature. Whether they are of the reading, writing, or researching variety – anything that inspires linguistic love counts as a… Read more »
